Friday, March 20, 2015

LOVELY FRIENDS DEPART FOR AUSTRALIA!

Thursday afternoon, Susan and Robert Horsnell left for their home in Australia. I feel as if I’ve lost a part of myself. Having Susan and Robert visit was wonderful!

The Horsnells are truly unique and interesting people. Susan is so generous to other authors. Her Easychair Bookshop at http://easychairbookshop.com is a major FREE promotion tool for authors and a great FREE resource for readers. Susan devotes her time to this project as a way of giving back to readers and helping fellow authors.

Robert and Susan Horsnell

She is such a generous and giving person that she promises she will never charge authors and readers for Easychair Bookshop. In addition, she does reviews, hosts authors on her blog, features authors and books on Easychair, and does many other gracious things for authors. Her blog is http://susanhorsnell.com  

Robert is a retired Commodore in the Australian Royal Navy with fascinating stories of his travels in and out of Australia. He and Susan had an attentive audience at our home—except none of us could keep from interrupting them with our own comments. Yes, we were loud.

If you remember an earlier post on March 2nd, Susan had wished for snow when she came to Texas. Wow, did she ever get her wish! Then there was rain. We did have to wait out the snow and ice, but rain did not slow Susan and Robert. They saw Fredericksburg, Lost Maples, Corpus Christi, Galveston, Houston, New Orleans, and Memphis in the rain. Susan was able to visit Graceland, which was one of her lifelong dreams. Needless to say, she is a major Elvis fan. 

Robert said the reason there are "help wanted" signs in so many places is because Susan's shopping singlehandedly stimulated the U.S. economy. 

Susan Horsnell at the Fort Worth Stockyards
March 17, 2015
On their return to Fort Worth, we had one day of sunshine for the Fort Worth Stockyards, but then rain derailed our trip to the Dallas Arboretum and other Dallas sites. We traveled to Grapevine and the Bessie Mitchell House and gardens and back through the C. R. Smith Aviation Museum.  Rain meant we were disappointed to be unable to provide stellar sites for their last couple of days, but they remained gracious.

During their stay, Hero and I hosted two dinners for Susan to meet a few local authors (and for friends to meet Susan and Robert). The first event had to be postponed from a snowy, icy Friday night until Sunday noon. We served chili, beans, corn salad, corn muffins, and peach cobbler with ice cream. Guests included Brenda Chitwood, Carra Copelin and her husband Jerry, Hebby Roman and her husband Luis, Kirsten Osbourne and her husband Keith, and Lyn Horner and her husband Ken. 
You might have heard us laughing from wherever you are. We did a lot of that.

The second event was Wednesday evening. In addition to Susan and Robert, guests were Brenda Chitwood, Geri Foster, Kathy Shaw, and Sylvia McDaniel and her husband Don. A few less guests than before, but still lots of laughter and chatter. Again, we were loud!
Sylvia McDaniel, Susan Horsnell, Kathy Shaw, Caroline Clemmons, and Geri Foster.
Brenda Chitwood left before we remembered to snap a photo.

Susan writes western historical romances as herself and erotica as Lacey Roberts. You can find her Susan Horsnell Amazon Author Page at http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Horsnell/e/B00BXR5FMM/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1426801043&sr=1-2-ent Her books include The Glenmore series: REVENGE, CAUGHT, SECRETS, and DEPUTY;  BLIND ACCEPTANCE; BLIND ACHIEVEMENT; SECRET MEMORIES (contemporary set in Australia); STUCK UP GOVERNESS; FORGOTTEN SPARKS; WESTERN ANGELS; CAPTURING CHARLIE; MAIL ORDER MARSHALL; and (with Margaret Tanner) COLONIALS AND COWBOYS. In addition, versatile Susan has written two children’s books illustrated by her daughter-in-law Coralee Horsnell: CHILDREN’S ABC OF LANGUAGE and MYSTERY UNDER THE HOUSE.



Her Lacey Roberts’ Amazon Author Page is http://www.amazon.com/Lacey-Roberts/e/B00JPVL9KU/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1426802751&sr=1-2-ent  Susan’s bestselling books as Lacey Roberts include DEADLY SECRETS; TAMING GEMMA; WHISPERED PLEASURES; LOVING HURTS; GUARDIAN COP; MASTERING JUSTICE; MASTER OF LAW; LOVING BETHANY; CAPTIVE; and (with K.C. Vixen) LUST and LOVES’ MASTERS. Her M/M books are MURDER HAWAIIAN STYLE and GREEK AFFAIR.

Whew, can you say “prolific writer”? Susan only began writing when she retired from nursing about five years ago. At that time, she and Robert moved to their dream home nestled on a Queensland hillside. Situated among a lovely garden carved by Robert, Susan writes daily with windows and doors open to the temperate clime. Their two sons are grown so their only “kiddies” are Jack Russell terriers along with their finches and a cockatiel. In addition, the area where they live is home to dozens of species of colorful birds. The description of their land and climate had me ready to move there until they mentioned Australia has an overabundance of poisonous snakes. Yikes!  

If you haven’t already done so, I hope you’ll give Susan Horsnell/Lacey Roberts’ books a try. I always enjoy a book more if I know the author is a truly nice person. For your shopping convenience, please check out her Easychair Bookshop.

Thanks for stopping by!


4 comments:

D'Ann said...

I saw many of the pictures on Facebook, and I was so jealous you got to meet the lovely Susan. She has been so kind to me, and I adore her!

Carra Copelin said...

Susan and Robert are wonderful people and I know they enjoyed their stay at your lovely home, Caroline. I'm blessed to have met them. Susan is a genuine delight and true friend.
Thanks, Caroline, for opening your home to all of us to enjoy!

Cheryl Wright said...

I am very lucky to be able to call Sue 'friend'.

She is such a wonderful and giving person, and I appreciate the time I get to spend with her. (We live two states apart, but do get some face-to-face time.)

Rain Trueax said...

This is such a great story and experience for you to share. I always like hearing about writers getting together but knowing some of you, through the Internet, made this even better. Sue really is a prolific writer and generous promoter of other writers. She's a win/win sort to know. :) Thanks for sharing another piece of the Horsnell trip.